Indigenous plant use: food, medicine & tools (Preschool – Year 2)

Explore the Gardens’ plants and landscapes through the eyes of Indigenous Australians.

Delve into our Indigenous handling collection to learn how native plants can provide many of the essentials of life, including food, medicine, tools, weapons and clothes.

You’ll also discover how Indigenous Australians use native plants today.

Resources

• Aboriginal plant use in south-eastern Australia (PDF)

Australian Curriculum connections

Year 1

• AC9S1U01: Identify the basic needs of plants and animals, including air, water, food or shelter, and describe how the places they live meet those needs.
• AC9S1U02: Describe daily and seasonal changes in the environment and explore how these changes affect everyday life.

Year 2

• AC9S2U01: Recognise Earth is a planet in the solar system and identify patterns in the changing position of the sun, moon, planets and stars in the sky.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures (Cross Curriculum Priority)

• A_TSICP1: First Nations communities of Australia maintain a deep connection to, and responsibility for, Country/Place and have holistic values and belief systems that are connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways.
• A_TSIC1: First Nations Australian societies are diverse and have distinct cultural expressions such as language, customs and beliefs. As First Nations Peoples of Australia, they have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural expressions, while also maintaining the right to control, protect and develop culture as Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property.
• A_TSIC2: First Nations Australians’ ways of life reflect unique ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing.
• A_TSIC3: The First Peoples of Australia (Aboriginal Peoples) belong to the world’s oldest continuous cultures. First Nations Australians demonstrate resilience in the maintenance, practice and revitalisation of culture despite the many historic and enduring impacts of colonisation, and continue to celebrate and share the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures.
• A_TSIP1: Australia has 2 distinct First Nations Peoples; each encompasses a diversity of nations across Australia. Aboriginal Peoples are the first peoples of Australia and have occupied the Australian continent for more than 60,000 years. Torres Strait Islander Peoples are the First Nations Peoples of the Torres Strait and have occupied the region for over 4,000 years.
• A_TSIP3: The significant and ongoing contributions of First Nations Australians and their histories and cultures are acknowledged locally, nationally and globally.